Authors
J. Tom Morgan
Scott Reinstein
Lane Kirkland
Kathy Thompson

Demographic Data
DeKalb County is one of the counties making up metropolitan Atlanta. The county seat is Decatur. The county also contains other municipalities, including part of Atlanta. The county is primarily residential with many residents working in downtown Atlanta. Several colleges and universities are within the county limits. These include Emory University and its divinity school, medical school, and law school, Agnes Scott College, Oglethorpe University, Georgia Perimeter College, Mercer University, DeVry University, and Columbia Theological Seminary. According to the 2000 Census, the county population is 665,865, of which 55.3% are African American, 4.5% are Asian, 37% are Caucasian and 8.1% are Hispanic.

The average household income in DeKalb County is $63,066. The median income for African American households is $43,485; for Asian households it is $44,573; for Caucasian households it is $59,199 and for Hispanic households it is $43,574. The census data reflect that 10.8 % of the population lives below the poverty level. Of that 10.8% 41,871 are African Americans; 12,022 are Caucasians; 10,616 are Hispanics, and 3,873 are Asians.

According to the Georgia 2003 Kids Count Fact Book(1), 14.9% of the adults in DeKalb County have less than a high school education. There are approximately 163,978 children under the age of eighteen in the county of whom 68.2% are African American, 21.4% are Caucasian, and 8.1% are Hispanic. The same study states that 23,308 children live below the poverty level in DeKalb County; 15.6% of African American children and 8.9% of Caucasian children. Twenty percent of the Caucasian births in 1999 were to unwed mothers and fifty-seven percent of the African American births were to unwed mothers. There are approximately 3,535 16-19 year olds in the county who are not in school and are unemployed, of whom 2,276 are African Americans and 664 are Caucasians.(2)

DeKalb County is a culturally diverse community by race. It is for this reason that it is interesting to do an analysis of homicides in this area. We reviewed indicted homicides and murder/suicides because these cases offer the best data as to the characteristics of victims, defendants, and the homicides themselves.

Indicted Homicides or Murder/Suicides
Researchers examined every indicted homicide that was referred for prosecution to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, occurring from January 1, 1992 to December 31, 2001. They also examined all the murder/suicides for the same period. The researchers collected the following data: age, gender, and race of victim; whether the victim knew the defendant; the instrument used to commit the homicide; age, gender, and race of defendant; whether the homicide was committed during the commission of a another crime that would make the homicide eligible for the death penalty; and whether the homicide was domestic related.

The researchers did not include for purposes of this study defendants whose cases were dismissed by the prosecution before presentation to the grand jury or defendants whose charges were dismissed by the grand jury. The examined cases were limited to those in which the defendant was indicted by a grand jury or those in which the defendant committed suicide after the murder. The researchers did not follow the indicted cases through final disposition. The estimated margin of error for this research is approximately 4%.

Juvenile Defendants Charged With Murder
In 1994 the Georgia legislature passed a law requiring that juveniles, thirteen through sixteen years of age, be prosecuted as adults for certain violent felonies unless the district attorney finds, “for good cause”, that the defendant should be prosecuted as a juvenile. Since the passage of that law, forty-three juveniles have been charged with murder, 32 African Americans (74.4%), 4 Asians (9.3%), 0 Caucasians (0%), and 7 Hispanics (16.3%).(3)

Summary

Victim Data

• Male-313, median age-27; Female-128, median age-31
• African/American-318; Asian-11; Caucasian-65; Hispanic-39; Other-8
• Victim knew assailant-327
• Domestic related-145
• Victim killed by defendant of another race: African/American-12; Asian-1; Caucasian-30; Hispanic-11; Other-5

Defendant Data

• Male-575, median age-22; Female-58, median age-26
• African/American-513; Asian-14; Caucasian-51; Hispanic-43; Other-12
• Defendant knew victim-412
• Defendant race different than victim race: African/American-78; Asian-0; Caucasian-9; Hispanic-3; Other-10

Weapon Data

• Handgun-302; knife-47; rifle-25; blunt object-25; strangulation-18; fist-10; other-7; arson-6; drowning-1

Death Penalty Eligible Homicides

• Aggravating circumstance: Armed Robbery-176; Multiple Victims-16; Rape-8; Kidnapping-7; Officer Shooting-1
• Male-188; Female-20
• African/American-183; Asian-0; Caucasian-13; Hispanic-10; Other-2

Analysis of Data By Victim

During the ten-year time period for this study there were 441 homicides in which a defendant was indicted by a grand jury or where the defendant committed suicide after the homicide. The majority of the homicide victims knew their assailant. The total number of victims who knew their assailant was 327 (74%). The number of victims who were killed in a domestic incident was 145 (33%). The number of homicides in which the attacker committed suicide after the homicide was 36 (8%).

The number and percentage of victims by race was as follows: 318 African Americans (72%), 11 Asians (2%), 65 Caucasians (15 %), 39 Hispanics (9%), Other 8 (2%).

The gender of the victims was 313 male (71%) and 128 female (29%). The median age for the male victim was 27; the median age for the female victim was 31. There were 45 victims who were under the age of 17 at the time of the homicide. Of these cases, 21 were under the age of 12.

The number of victims who were killed by someone of a different race was 59, which represents 13% of the total homicide victims. Of these 59 victims, there were 12 African Americans, which is 4% of the total African American victims; 1 Asian, which was 9% of the total Asian victims; 30 Caucasians, which was 46% of the total Caucasian victims; 11 Hispanics, which was 28% of the total Hispanic victims; and 5 victims classified as Other races, which was 63% of the total Other race victims. Within this group of victims, 5 African Americans; 0 Asians; 14 Caucasians; and 1 Hispanic knew their assailants. When the race of the victim was different from the race of the defendant, 39 of the 59 victims did not know their assailant.

Analysis of Data by Defendant

A total of 633 defendants were examined who were indicted for murder or who committed suicide after murdering the victim. In many cases more than one defendant was indicted for the homicide of a single victim under the legal theory of a party to a crime.

The total number and percentage of defendants by race was 513 African Americans (81%). 0 Asians (0%), 51 Caucasians (8%), 43 Hispanics (7%), and 12 Other (2%).

There were 575 male defendants and 58 female defendants who were indicted for murder or who committed suicide after murdering their victim in this time period. The median age of the male defendants was 22; the median age of the female defendants was 26. The youngest murder defendant at the time of the homicide was 13; the oldest defendant was 74.

The number of defendants who knew their victim was 412 (65%). The number of defendants who were charged in a domestic homicide was 142 (22%). The number of defendants who committed suicide after killing their victims was 33 (5%).

The number of defendants who committed suicide after killing their victim was 33 or 5% of the total number of defendants. The racial breakdown of these defendants was as follows: 3 Asian; 19 African American; 4 Hispanic; and 7 Caucasian.

One hundred defendants were indicted for murder for killing a person of another race: 78 African Americans, 0 Asians, 9 Caucasians, 3 Hispanics, and 10 Other. Of these, 22 African Americans (28%), 0 Asians, 4 Caucasians (44%), and 3 Hispanics (100%) knew their victims.

Analysis by Type of Instrument Used to Commit the Homicide

The following types of weapons were categorized for this study: handgun, rifle, knife, blunt object, fists, arson, strangulation and by other means. The most common instrumentality for homicides in DeKalb County during the period studied was the handgun. Three hundred and two victims were killed by a handgun, which constitutes 68% of the total victims. The remaining victims were killed as follows: 25 with a rifle (6%); 47 with a knife (11%); 25 with a blunt object (6%); 10 by use of the defendants' fists (2%); 6 by means of an arson (1%); 18 by strangulation (4%) and 8 victims were killed by other means (2%).

Analysis of Defendants Who Were Eligible for Consideration of the Death Penalty

Before a prosecutor can announce an intent to seek the death penalty, a statutory aggravating circumstance must be present. Statutory aggravating circumstances are defined by law. O.C.G.A. § 17-10-30. The researchers limited the examination of aggravating circumstances to those cases where the homicide was committed while in the occurrence of another capital felony or the murder of a law enforcement officer. The other capital felonies under Georgia law are murder(4), armed robbery, rape, and kidnapping. There are more aggravating circumstances defined in the code, but aggravating circumstances involving another capital felony are most common and do not involve the subjective determination of the prosecutor.

Using the above criteria, 208 defendants were death penalty eligible, or 33% of the total number of defendants charged with murder. Sixteen defendants committed a homicide while in the commission of another murder; 176 defendants committed a homicide while in the commission of an armed robbery; 8 defendants committed a homicide while in the commission of a rape; 7 defendants committed a homicide while in the commission of a kidnapping and one defendant was charged with the homicide in which the victim was a police officer.

Ninety percent (188) of death penalty-eligible defendants were male. The remaining 10% (20) were female. Of the 208 death penalty eligible defendants 81 (39%) of them knew their victim.

The following is an analysis of death penalty eligible defendants by race: 183 African American defendants which was 88% of the total death penalty eligible defendants; 0 Asian defendants; 13 Caucasian defendants which was 6% of the total death penalty eligible defendants; 10 Hispanic defendants which was 5% of the total death penalty eligible defendants; and 2 defendants classified as other races which was 1% of the total death penalty eligible defendants.

There were a total of 61 defendants who were eligible for the death penalty where the victim was of a different race from the defendant's.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Victim

• Most homicide victims knew their killers (74%). Over one-third of the victims (145) were killed in a domestic related homicide. Although these homicides are very difficult to prevent, the criminal justice system, with support from the private sector, needs to find better methods of protecting those who live in fear of death from someone they know.
• Most of the victims of homicide were men (71%), and over ninety percent of the defendants who commit homicide were also men. Homicide prevention needs to target the male population, probably at a very early age.
• DeKalb County is 55.3% African American, and seventy-two percent of the victims of homicide were African American. Again, crime prevention must target the communities where there is the greatest risk.
• Only 13% of the total victims were killed by someone of a different race. Four percent of African Americans (12) were killed by someone of another race; however, forty-six percent of Caucasians (30) were killed by someone of another race. Most victims who were killed by someone of another race did not know their assailant. Stranger-on-stranger homicides were more likely where the defendant and victim were of different races.

Defendant

• Ninety-one percent of the defendants charged with homicide, 575 out of 633, were men. Why men are more prone to murder is a question that must be answered before society can learn to prevent homicides.
• Eighty-one percent of the assailants (513) were African American. However, African Americans in DeKalb County have the largest population living below the poverty line, the most children living below the poverty level, and the greatest number of unemployed high school dropouts. These are all factors criminologists know contribute to higher murder rates. Socio-economic factors, not race, determine those most likely to be involved in a homicide(5).
• One hundred defendants killed someone of another race, 78 African Americans, 9 Caucasians, and 3 Hispanics. Fewer than one third of these defendants knew their victims. Again, homicides which cross racial lines were most often stranger-on-stranger.

Weapon

• The handgun was the weapon of choice for murder in DeKalb County; 302 of the 441 victims were killed with a handgun, while another 25 victims were killed with a rifle or a shotgun.

Death Penalty

• About one-third of all defendants indicted for murder in DeKalb County could be eligible under Georgia law for the death penalty. The vast majority of these homicides were committed during the commission of an armed robbery, 176 or 85%.
• Eighty-eight percent of the defendants eligible for the death penalty (183) were African American. Thirteen Caucasian defendants and ten Hispanic defendants were death penalty eligible.
• Sixty-one death penalty eligible defendants killed someone of a different race, 56 African Americans, 3 Caucasians, and 1 Hispanic. Much has been written and said about prosecutors in Georgia seeking the death penalty more against African Americans than defendants of other races. In addition, some have alleged the death penalty is sought more against African Americans who kill someone of a different race. In DeKalb County defendants who were African American far out number all other races in death penalty eligible crimes as well as the murder of someone of another race where the homicide was death penalty eligible.

Murder is the ultimate crime. Lives are lost, families destroyed, and millions of dollars are invested in prosecuting, defending, and housing those who commit murder. Those who commit murder must be held accountable, but prosecution only prevents the defendant charged from committing another crime. Prosecution does not deter the next person from committing a criminal act. We can go on as we have been going - prosecuting, defending, housing - all at great public expense, but this will not prevent future crimes.

Crime prevention begins with the infant and must continue all the way through adolescence. Children who live below the poverty level, children who are physically, emotionally and mentally abused, children who do not have parental support and guidance, children who fall through the cracks in our education system are at greatest risk of being a defendant in our criminal justice system (6). It costs $18,000 a year to house an inmate. Defendants convicted of murder must serve at least fourteen years in prison. It costs only $3,500 a year to provide preventive, weekly support for children and families at risk(7). As a society we must make a choice, invest now or pay later. These are all our children, we will either profit by, or pay for, whatever they become.

1. Published by Family Connections, Atlanta, Georgia 2003.
2. Supra
3. "Juveniles Prosecuted As Adults In DeKalb County", page 3, L. Schneider, Public Defender.
4. This would apply to cases in which there are two or more homicide victims.
5. The researchers were not able to determine the educational level or economic status for the victims and defendants for this report because such data is not available. It is recommended that DeKalb County start collecting such data for future studies.
6. New Hope for Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect: Proven Solutions to save lives and prevent future crime, Report by Fight Crime: Invest In Kids, a private, non-profit group based in Washington, D.C., www.fightcrime.org.
7. Healthy Families Georgia, a program of Prevent Child Abuse Georgia, an Atlanta based private, non-profit group.